Alcoa workers' hours are cut

    MASSENA — To prevent more job cuts, Alcoa employees at Global Hard Alloy Extrusions have moved to a 32-hour work week. The measure went into effect Monday. The change affects 140 hourly employees and 30 salaried employees. Details are still being finalized about which employees will lose which shifts and how the decision will affect salaried workers. Benefit packages will not be affected for either group."Customer orders have slowed considerably," Alcoa spokeswoman Laurie A. Marr said. "Our extrusions business is slow to respond because orders are made so far in advance.

    "At the urging of the unions, Alcoa is looking into a shared work program through the Department of Labor to help defray the effects of the new policy on workers. If the application for the program is approved, employees will be able to apply for partial payment for the lost hours. The program would pay for between two and four hours of the lost time, according to Larry A. Richards, United Steelworkers Local 420 president. Workers hope to have a determination by next week, Mr. Richards said.Global Hard Alloy Extrusions is a second, much smaller, business at Alcoa's Massena plant. It does not make aluminum like the primary metals division does, but enhances the aluminum according to customer orders to make special alloys.Because the extrusion business depends on specific customer orders, the change to the 32-hour work week will be reviewed every week, in case more orders come in. There is no date for when a 40-hour week will be reinstated for all the employees."The important thing to remember is, because of customer orders, there might be people working 40 hours there while others are working 32," Ms. Marr said.For now, these are the only cuts planned at the plant. 

    "I think it's just another step," Mr. Richards said. "Business is just terrible. We're not getting any orders. This gives them a little breathing room to see what happens."In November, the company announced that 120 jobs would be cut from the primary metals division. Last month, it announced that its global work force would be cut by 13,500, or 13 percent. That number included the cuts already announced in Massena."We can't make any predictions," she said. "Everything is dependent on market conditions."Since the summer, the price of aluminum has dropped significantly. This week, a ton goes for around $1,400, compared to $3,300 in July, according to Ms. Marr.